Brontë sisters and Jane Austen are equally, if not more, popular in China than in the English speaking world. The most popular Jane Eyre adaption in China, the 1970 version starring Susannah York and George Scott, was dubbed into Chinese and watched by millions people in late 70s, at the time when the country was just starting to recover from the shock of Cultural Revolution. The possibility of passionate love, in the guise of rebellion against social classes, was slipped into the mind of a whole generation.

Last month in Chinese National Day Celebration at Edinburgh Festival Theatre, one programme was an act by two performers who re-enacted the scene when Jane Eyre finally expresses her love to Mr Rochester, not the actual movie scene, but the dubbed dialog in Chinese. It received wild cheers.

Of course the new generations are spoiled with more imports from the US, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and lately Korea, however, English dramas still maintain their attraction, not only for their renowned high quality, but also for the unique settings. I watched Robert Powell’s The Thirty Nine Steps (1978) — it may be less well known in the UK, but in China it’s the most famous adaption, and was forever fascinated by British railway and the Big Ben clock. I still remember my excitment the first time I boarded a ’slam-door’ railway carriage, which appears in many British movies but does not exist in China.

Britain for some Chinese is a place as exotic as China for some British people. In the forseeable future, more and more Chinese people will find it’s affordable to visit the place to ’see where the story happens’. So show them good movies, and they will come.

I first watched this film more than ten years ago in Hong Kong. At that time I was already interested in the history of Chinese cinema and had begin working on my project Chinese Movie Database. The impact of this film on me, looking back now, was that it made me realise that the early (1930s) Chinese films could be attractive and sexy. The beautiful and enigmatic Ruan Lingyu became this focal point of my interest in early Chinese cinema. This film tells the history of the Shanghai era of silent cinema through Ruan Lingyu, with great passion. I guess there must have been some influence from Peggy Chiao, the film producer and critics from Taiwan, who provided the concept of this film. We saw the director and actresses interview the characters they played, and be interviewed. Scenes of the lost films were re-constructed. And when Zhang Damin visited Ruan Lingyu’s new home unexpectedly, I could almost see a glimpse of The Goddess.

The re-enact of the scene in Ruan Lingyu’s masterpiece The Goddess (which will be shown on 12th Mar 7:00pm during Cinema China 07) by Maggie Cheung is possibly the highest homage an actress can pay to the great one. Maggie Cheung broke into international scene after she won the Silver Bear for Best Actress with this film in Berlin, and went on to become an icon of contemporary Chinese cinema. If I am allowed to indulge a bit in superstitution, I would say perhaps she is blessed by the spirit Ruan Lingyu.

In the middle of the film, when the camera panned around the stage of Lianhua Company, the young faces of directors, actors and actress are full of hope and energy. They were singing and playing. They were the household names of that era, pioneers of Chinese cinema. Ruan Lingyu, Li Lili, Li Zhuozhuo, Lin Chuchu,
Chen Yanyan, Jin Yan, Sun Yu, Li Minwei, Wu Yonggang, Fei Mu, Pu Wancang, Cai Chusheng… We will see films made by them, like Fei Mu’s Spring in a Small Town and Ruan Lingyu’s The Goddess (directed by Wu Yonggang), along with the ones made by several generations after them. After all, Ruan Lingyu and Lianhua are the representatives of the first golden era of Chinese cinema.

Cinema China 07

I watched Spring in a Small Town Hong Kong, during a retrospective of Fei Mu’s work held in Hong Kong Arts Centre in mid-90s. That was a rare event, because this movie disappeared from the public sight after initial release in Shanghai and was only re-discovered in 80’s, which makes it extremely difficult to locate a copy. The copy I watched was in excellent condition though. After the screening,
I approached Fei Ming Yi, the master’s daughter and one of the organisers of the retrospective, asking her where she got the copy. She said she borrowed it from Beijing Film Archive and, certainly used her influence to get the deal, had to ‘garantee the return on my life’. Afterwards, I always take it as a badget of honour as being in that cosy small theatre that evening.

There have since been VCDs and DVDs of the movie available. But nothing compares with impact of watching the film on big screen. This film is made for cinema, although it tells a story only involves five characters in a small town.
It has now been regarded as one of the best Chinese films ever made, an excellent and innovative fusion of Chinese literal and opera tradition and western cinema language.

So you can imagine my surprise and delight to see Spring in a Small Town features in the programmes of Chinese Cinema 07 organisied by Edinburgh Unversity and Filmhouse cinema. Claimed to be ‘UK’s the biggest ever festival of Chinese film’, it will show about 30 Chinese films from 1940’s to the latest – a preview of Zhang Yimou’s Curse of the Golden Flower, not mention the presence of Maggie Cheung. For those 1940’s films though, such as Ruan Lingyu’s Goddess (with a specially-commissioned musical accompaniment conducted by my friend Kimho Ip), Crows and Sparrows, and Spring in a Small Town, this is indeed a chance not to miss. So cancel your another engagement, travel by air, land and sea, and come to Edinburgh in the spring.

Cinema China 07